European conferences

Wednesday, 7 March

On Saturday, I arrived at the European Psychiatric Association
(EPA) Congress in Prague. The EPA has voted to include national
societies as well as individual members, which hopefully will
give a lever for a more shared vision, purpose, and reality to
European psychiatry. It is the first time I've attended the
Congress, and am impressed with how it manages to successfully
blend science with humanity across the presentations. It has given
me real food for thought.

I hope the Presidents of psychiatric
societies in Europe will meet the day before our International
Congress in Liverpool, together with the zonal leads for
Europe from the World Psychiatric Association and the World Health
Organisation. This will give us an opportunity to talk about the
mental health strategy that is shortly to be completed by WHO, and
will help all of us - in each of our countries - develop a stronger
voice about what we do and can do, raising the profile of both
psychiatry and the importance of good mental health services.